This is Truly Disturbing

Okay, I'm getting used to hearing news of gangbangers shooting each other on an almost daily basis in this city and don't really care if they shoot each other anymore. One less gang member means one less person to commit a crime as far as I'm concerned. But this recent incident in this violent city of ours is so sad and so senseless.

Imagine you are a 62 year old black woman, living on the southeast side of town, in a little house you and your husband worked hard to buy. Yes, it's the poorer side of town and things in your neighborhood are getting a little run down, but you have some pretty rose bushes in your front yard, and you love to tend them. It's a nice spring evening, getting a little chilly after a balmy day, but the air is sweet and the night is calm. You're getting ready to turn in and go out into the front yard to make sure your gate is closed and everything is secure for the night. You see a couple of your neighbors and stop to say hello and how was your day. Around the corner comes a car, you glance up, and that is the last thing you will ever do. From the car comes a hail of bullets and you are shot dead in your front yard. Your neighbors, a 54 year old woman and a 44 year old man are also shot, but survive.

Yes, this is probably gang related, but I hardly think that this 62 year old woman was a gang member. More likely some sort of gang initiation? Go out and kill somebody, anybody, and secure your position as a gang member? I'm imagining the people in the car speeding off, laughing about how they got one, bragging to their friends about how easy it was to kill this woman. Somebody's mother, maybe somebody's grandmother, a woman who'd lived her life working hard paying her bills, being kind to her neighbors, bringing a hot dish to the church supper, and tending her front yard rose garden.